Alberta to revisit guidelines on secluding children at school

Alberta's Education Minister said he's convening a working group of teachers, parents and advocates by next week to write a new set of guidelines for schools to use when isolating students with behavioural issues.

Alberta Education Minister David Eggen said he is striking a working group to revisit provincial policies about placing students in isolation in Alberta schools. A family is suing the Alberta government, among others, for alleged harm caused to their son, who was locked inside an isolation room in a Sherwood Park school.Larry Wong / Postmedia, file

Alberta’s education minister said he’s convening a working group of teachers, parents and advocates by next week to write a new set of guidelines for schools to use when isolating students with behavioural issues.

“The minister has been clear that he believes seclusion rooms should only be used as a last resort and with the safety of children as the priority,” Education Minister David Eggen’s press secretary, Lindsay Harvey, said in an email Thursday.

His statement comes after a Sherwood Park family said their child with autism was locked, naked, in a school isolation room. The student’s parents are suing the teacher, the principal, the school board and the Alberta government.

The lawsuit, filed last year in the Court of Queen’s Bench, said staff at Clover Bar School in Sherwood Park and the agencies that oversaw them committed “malfeasance” and violated the then-12-year-old boy’s charter rights when they told him to remove all his clothes, then locked him, unsupervised, in the small room in 2015.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Elk Island Public Schools spokeswoman Laura McNabb said Thursday the district is aware of the lawsuit and “will strongly defend the actions of (district) staff” in court. She would not say if the board had filed a statement of defence with the court, or comment further on the case.

A statement of defence filed by the Alberta government said it is not vicariously liable for the actions of a school board, administrators or teachers, and asks that a judge dismiss the claim.

In a statement of claim filed with the court, parents Marcy Oakes and Warren Henschel said their son is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, a speech disorder and severe gastrointestinal disorders. He required one-on-one supervision in school for his health and safety, it said.

On Sept. 23, 2015, their son’s teacher sent them a photo of the boy naked and covered in feces inside the isolation room, the statement said.

“I was shocked and disgusted and hurt,” Oakes said in a Thursday interview. “I trusted that program. I trusted the school. I trusted them with my son who can’t speak.”

When the boy’s father arrived at the school, he found school staff eating lunch two rooms away, where they could not see his son, the parents’ statement said. Paper covered the only window on the isolation room door, the parents claim.

The parents say they had never given the school consent to put their son in an isolation room, nor was it a part of an individualized plan the school used to address his unique needs.

Oakes said she didn’t even know the school had such a room.

The suit seeks $250,000 for emotional and psychological damages to the boy, $25,000 in damages for physical injuries, and a declaration the defendants violated the boy’s charter rights, along with interest and legal costs.

Oakes said the lawsuit is about getting policies changed, not money. She wants isolation rooms banned in Alberta schools and a consistent policy across the province. She’s set to appear at a Friday morning news conference at Inclusion Alberta, which is also calling for an end to the practice.

“It’s corporal punishment. It’s solitary confinement,” Oakes said.

Her son, now 15, was traumatized by the incident, she said. He couldn’t go to the bathroom with the door closed, and didn’t want to be touched for a long time. He now attends Catholic school, where staff have helped him recover, she said.

Harvey said no Canadian jurisdiction has an outright ban on student seclusion, but the new working group “will be encouraged to look at all options.”

A 2008 document called Supporting Positive Behaviour in Alberta Schools is the most recent guidance available. It says teachers may use a “time away area” outside the classroom when a student displays “significantly problematic behaviour,” and when other strategies aren’t working.

“Staff must obtain parental permission to utilize seclusion timeout as a strategy in behaviour management,” the non-binding guidelines say.

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